IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 10/24/2013

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 10/24/2013

AnandTech

iPad Air: Hands On [video]
Brian also just finished up some hands on with the iPad Air. Check out the video below for his impressions and a comparison to the new mini.

We just played with the iPad Air, which is much thinner and lighter than the previous generation iPad. In the hands, it's shocking how much of a difference the change in profile makes, analogous somewhat to the way moving from the iPhone 4 or 4S to 5 felt. The chamfered edge and narrower profile makes it easier to grip the iPad Air in the hands, and there's still enough bezel around as well, though it is smaller.
The iPad Air feels a lot more like a larger iPad mini than it does a newer generation of the previous iPad. The iPad Air includes the same Apple A7 SoC as the iPhone 5s and also includes the M7 sensor fusion hub.

Gallery: iPad Air

iPad mini with Retina Display: Hands On [video]
Brian just spent some time hands on with the new iPad mini:

Gallery: iPad Mini with Retina Display

Apple Event (October 2013) - Live Blog
Brian and I are on the ground in San Francisco for Apple's event today. We're expecting to see new iPads introduced as well as the long-awaited Haswell rMBP refreshes. The event starts at 10AM PT, keep it parked here for our live blog!

Synology Introduces Media-Centric DS214play

Synology has been pretty busy introducing its 2014 models over the last couple of weeks. While the DS214 was, in my opinion, a run-of-the-mill product (not taking away any of the awesome features that the DSM 4.3 OS provides, but just a comment on the hardware), today's announcements are much more interesting.
First up is the DS214play, based on Intel's EvanSport (aka Berryville) platform. Synology had teased the DS714 earlier at CeBit, based on the same platform. However, that unit doesn't seem to be available for sale anywhere. Today, we have shipping confirmation on the DS214play. While the DS214play is not the first EvanSport unit to ship (the Thecus N2560 and the Asustor AS-302T hold that distinction), we are very encouraged by the availability of hardware acceleration for video transcoding. The Thecus N2560, in our evaluation, failed to utilize the internal SoC engines to serve up transcoded media (used the CPU cycles, instead). Synology advertises the unit to be the first DiskStation to launch with dedicated hardware acceleration, specifically for video transcoding. The DS214play has two bays, comes with a 1.6 GHz dual-core CPU (which points to the Intel CE5335) and 1 GB of RAM. It will be interesting to see if the encryption feature is also able to take advantage of the available hardware acceleration in the EvanSport platform.

Gallery: Synology DS214play

Synology claims that the unit can provide read / write speeds of more than 100 MBps, but it is the media-centric features which steal the show here. Many codecs and containers are supported and we will have detailed coverage in a hands-on review. The DS214play is shipping today (US availability will be in November) and will have a MSRP of $370.

Gallery: Synology DS114 and DS414

The other new products being launched today by Synology are the single-bay DS114 and the four-bay DS414. The former complements its single gigabit link with two USB 3.0 ports and an eSATA port. It will have a MSRP of $200. The DS414 provides dual gigabit links with two USB 3.0 ports and a USB 2.0 port in front. It also has redundant fans. The DS414 will have a MSRP of $500. Synology refused to divulge the exact SoCs being used in the DS114 and DS414, but their wiki page seems to suggest that these are Freescale PowerPC-based ones. Once these units hit the market, it should be easy to confirm.

Monoprice IPS-Glass Panel Pro 27" LCD Monitor
The first Monoprice display I looked at didn’t fare well. While very affordable, it only offered a DVI input and very little in the way of controls. The worst sin was that the brightness control on the display just didn't work correctly. A step up from that model is their IPS-Glass. With HDMI, DSub, and DisplayPort inputs to go with a dual-link DVI input, it is far more flexible than the cheaper model. It also returns the display controls to the front of the monitor instead of the rear. As important as these changes are, it won’t really matter if the issues found in the cheaper model exist here, so let's see if this second go with Monoprice fares any better.

TSA's New Screening Targets Certain Passengers for "Enhanced" Checks
It's unclear exactly what flags some passengers as suspicious

Crytek "Warface" Opens New Era of AAA In-Browser FPS Gaming
Warface is free to play, aims to build buzz for Crytek's latest cloud-based engine

Study: Female Breasts Age More Quickly Than Other Body Parts
The study concluded it might be due to hormones

Apple Announces 9.7" iPad Air; iPad mini Gets Retina Display for $399
Apple launches a fifth generation iPad and second generation iPad mini

Apple Announces New, Cheaper MacBook Pros; OS X Mavericks is Free to Download
Apple refreshes its MacBook Pro range

Facebook Lifts Ban on Photos, Videos with Graphic Violence
Facebook will allow it as long as the content isn't posted in a celebratory manner

Report: Microsoft Preparing Google Glass Competitor
No details on Microsoft's product are available

10.1" Nokia Lumia 2520 Windows RT Tablet Gets Official
Lumia 2520 will ship in Q4

Obama's Homeland Security Nominee Supports Warrantless Drone Strikes on Americans
"Negotiation's over. Sentence is death." -- Judge Dredd (Dredd, 2012)

Nokia Rolls Out Overachieving 6” Lumia 1520, Budget Lumia 1320 Windows Smartphones
Both the Lumia 1520 and Lumia 1320 feature 6" displays

Available Tags:iPad , Apple , Gaming , Other , MacBook , Download , Facebook , Microsoft , Google , Nokia , Windows , Tablet , Security ,

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